Varying speeds Infinity 80/20

Hello, My Infinity problems, since May this year when I "upgraded", have driven me to distraction. So many BT people have given me many and diverse reasons why my speeds should vary between 0.82Meg & 77Meg down and 2Meg to 15 Meg up.
Gave a bit of blunt talking to BT a week ago and I had one of their tier two people - someone to do with monitoring trials - phone me..
Long, long waffles, can't be a***d to repeat it all here, but the outcome was that he said he'd been monitoring my service for 28 days (no one told me) and my profile remained constant at approximately 68Meg. He said that there was nowt wrong with the line - as that was the case - so the issue was with my PC etc.
He was quite helpful and went through lots of issues - real or imagined - and the conclusion was my antii-virus software most likely was the root of the trouble. We isolated AVG and then the profiile remained constant, but the DL came back to 65ish - after going as low as 4Meg the previous day.
He recommended that I use the BT provided McAfee AV, as he'd never been aware of any issues surrounding that software.
McAfee installed now, and the speed "seems" to have remained constant @ 65Meg. I'm not holding my breath, but his elimination of AVG does seem to have had the desired effect - although why it should have taken BT since May this year to sort it, I know not.
I'll keep you updated as to if it stays stable.
Anyone else encountered such a problem, and used this solution?
Cheers,Les.

Re: Varying speeds Infinity 80/20

I used McAfee once and swore never again - it interfered with everything. I put it in the same bag as Norton..........

Not sure about AVG - not used it for years after it became a little bloated.

I'm on Infinity 2 with 74/16 actual and the speed never varies - wired or wireless. I just use Microsoft Security Essentials these days and have for quite a while now - never had a virus or a problem. I may be just lucky, but two others in the same street have the same set-ups with no problems. May be worth a try (but make sure you use every tool available to remove McAfee if you decide to as it infests itself everywhere!!).

Re: Varying speeds Infinity 80/20

elimination of AVG does seem to have had the desired effect - although why it should have taken BT since May this year to sort it, I know not.

If AVG truly is to blame (not convinced about this) then it is quite understandable why BT failed to diagnose the problem as they would, presumably, have claimed that their was no problem in their network which was true.

Problems with PCs can easily be blamed on AV packages, especially if the PC concerned has a relatively low spec (part of the reason why AV packages give fewer problems these days is that PC specs have generally got better). Uninstalling and major software may "fix" problems.

Re: Varying speeds Infinity 80/20

Hmm, My point was that someone at BT should have picked up on there being another issue at play - and not be fobbing me off since May this year, whilst I'm paying for a service I've not received.
Not convinced? Nor would I be generally, but since removing AVG, the speeds are what they should be ie in excess of 65Meg (just done,test 67+Meg).
I'll see what happens over the next week or so, but two days at "full speed" is the best I've had, consistently, since upgrading to 80/20.

Re: Varying speeds Infinity 80/20

Hmm, The guy that dealt with me the other day - from tier 2, trial monitoring (?) - was very helpful, but indifferent service, and broadband, from May this year, is surely not "excellent"?
Ah well, we'll see.
Cheers, Les.

Re: Varying speeds Infinity 80/20

I don't want to get into a wrangle, but the way I read your initial post is that there was nothing wrong with your broadband all that time, but something (AVG?) wrong with your computer. I agree that the effect is pretty much the same as far as the speeds you see, but there is the important difference that BT are responsible for your broadband but not for your PC. Helping you fix PC problems is outside their remit, which is why I say they did well to give that help. Obviously, it would have been nice if someone had been able to give the help earlier, but ...

Anyway, lets hope that was the reason and that your speed now remains high.

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Moved (with trepidation) to BT Infinity 2 for upload speed. Happy BE user for several years.